


Wistful Wisdom of the Wild, Wild West

by redbluezero



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:21:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22199308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbluezero/pseuds/redbluezero
Summary: Soon after the third Bullet of Bullets, Dyne notices that two of GGO’s famed players haven’t been logging in as of late. He makes an effort to reach out to Sinon, hoping to pay her back for helping him against Behemoth, but uncovers a lot more than he bargained for. It seems that the Death Gun incident is still weighing on the sniper’s mind...
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Wistful Wisdom of the Wild, Wild West

**Author's Note:**

> Can you believe this entire one-shot spawned from the Kyoto Nippon Festival x SAO goodies. Can you believe I saw the words “Dyne liked this post” and went absolutely feral and made a backstory. My mind couldn’t fathom why the cowboy had access to the post. Are they friends IRL? Do they just trust like that? But Sinon has difficulty trusting people! So something big must’ve happened; this one-shot is that something big. And since I can’t not mention Kyouji... well, you’ll see.  
> 

I haven’t seen Sinon’s friend, Spiegel, in SBC Glocken for a good month now. I never really talked to him much, but I’d seen him in the Bullet of Bullets prelims a few times. He was a powerhouse at first, and he totally outranked me. But I guess he was one of the losers who got fooled by XeXeed’s big ass lie about AGI builds being the strongest, because he started losing steam. He didn’t even enter the third BoB despite ranking decently before. I guess he realized that the other players would wipe the floor with him.

Still, he’d log in every day with Sinon. I have to admit, I used to track them down so I could find out their stats and observe their fighting style. I just figured I should keep an eye on the enemy, it’s nothing weird! But the more I watched, the more I realized they were pretty much always together. They were super in sync. Spiegel would dash around the battlefield maniacally, drawing out the enemy. Then Sinon would do her thing, unleash Hecate’s fury, and they were done. The way they smiled at each other after a victory made me think they were a thing, honestly.

When Sinon asked if she could join my party for a bit, I was surprised. I should’ve seen it from a mile away, though; she was totally just trying to get close to me to figure out how to take me down in the BoB. But she’s such a good player, I instinctively said yes. Sinon was a great help during our hunts, too, so I don’t regret it. For a college student, I sure learned a lot from her. Sometimes, whenever I get antsy on the battlefield, I can hear her yelling at me to stop being a coward. Don’t get me wrong, though, I wouldn’t hit on her. I think it’s gross that Ginrou even tried.

I think that time up in the tower waiting for Behemoth’s group is when I really started to… think of Sinon as a friend, maybe? I don’t think she feels the same way, since I overheard her say she had nothing nice to say about my personality. Which I get, of course, because I am kind of a dumbass. But for what it’s worth, I _do_ have her added on my friends list. It’s nothing much, since the menu is pretty limited, but I can see when she’s online. Thing is, Sinon hasn’t been logging on recently either. Which brings me to right now, a Saturday afternoon in SBC Glocken. This was the first time she’s logged on in a couple of days.

“Hey, Sinon! Where’ve you been?” I walked up to her, waving my hand around. She glanced at me with cold eyes.

“Why do you care?” she huffed, her high pitched voice stinging my ears. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. This was the hard part; how could I show my genuine concern for her?

“Well, my squadron could use the extra man power,” I replied, hoping logistics would get through to her. It was better than saying “are you going through a rough patch with your boyfriend?” outright. Sinon huffed again.

“I told you, the deal ended with the BoB. Maybe I’ll join you guys again once in a blue moon, but I really don’t like to _carry_ teams.” She pouted at that last part, trying to sass me. What is it about college girls that gives them all these guts? Maybe it’s just Sinon, but the question still stands.

“Hey, me and my men fight well by ourselves! But come on, you gotta admit we make a pretty good team. If not with the rest of the squad, why don’t you and I just hunt together?” I suggested, trying to keep the conversation going. Of course, my ego got the best of me and I had to defend myself at first, but I cooled down once I remembered what I had to do. The idea of a solo hunt was good on my part, too; not to diss Ginrou again, but I _really_ don’t want him anywhere near Sinon. Jeez, am I her brother or something? I’m going insane.

“Why would I hunt alone with you?” she snapped, her face scrunching up for real now. Maybe that was a shit idea after all.

“I heard they added an abandoned spaceship to the middle of the desert in this latest update. We could go together and get first dibs on whatever loot it has, better with a smaller team. Besides, I haven’t seen your usual partner, Spiegel, around at all,” I reasoned, half thinking of myself and half trying to convince her. Where did my empathy go? Anyway, I thought I was really getting through to her at first. Her face almost lit up when I told her about the new map. But as soon as I mentioned Spiegel, she ran up to me.

“Shut the fuck up, Dyne,” Sinon said tensely. In a split second, she grabbed my collar and ripped me off of the ground. I could feel my breath get caught, and I thought I was going to die. Her face was so full of emotion, her eyes wide and teeth gritted. But the closer I looked, I realized she wasn’t infuriated, but rather… incredibly sorrowful and lonely. Suddenly, she put me down. Then a notification popped up.

“Let’s go,” Sinon spat, quickly walking off to the teleporter. I looked down at my menu; she had invited me to her party. I guess I’d hit the nail on the head, so I tapped “accept” and quickly ran after her.

The spaceship took fucking forever to get to. Even though we were teleported to the main desert, the ship itself was super secluded. I’m pretty sure it’s at the very outskirts of the map, because we walked really far out. Even though it’s a virtual world, I felt fatigued. My boots were covered in sand. But the broken craft looked so cool, I stopped caring. The rust around the edges really gave it an aged look. Good on the devs for that.

“There’s a teleporter in there, so we won’t have to do this annoying walk ever again,” Sinon pointed to a small machine that jutted out of the ship’s landing. Past that was all darkness, but I pumped my fist.

“Alright, I’m ready to loot!” I yelled enthusiastically before running into the hunk of metal. With a straight face and without a word, Sinon followed me. I tapped my hand on the teleporter terminal, registering the location into my account. Sinon quickly did the same, and we ventured further into the ship. It was incredibly dark, which made sense for something abandoned. I opened up my inventory and took out a flashlight.

“Can you see in this mess? It’s pitch black!” I grumbled as we cautiously traversed the new dungeon. We were relying mostly on sound, but the only thing I heard was the echo of our footsteps.

“You’re just blind,” Sinon chided. She opened a menu and took out some goggles. Maybe those help her see? I’d seen some night-vision equipment in one of the stores, but it was always so expensive. I guess she bought it with the reward money from the BoB? She started picking up the pace after that, so I stumbled after her with my flimsy flashlight.

“Look out!” Sinon shouted after we’d walked at least a quarter of the way way in. At first I had no idea what she was talking about, since I didn’t hear or see anything, but I had to leap for my life as a monster came crashing at me. If it was real life, I would’ve lost my hat! As I got up from the ground, I got a good look at the enemy. It was a few levels higher than me, and shaped like large maggot. Its feelers wiggled around in the air, and I think it was taking a good look at me in return.

“Don’t just stand there! God, you have the reaction time of an ant!” Sinon scolded as she moved a few paces backwards. Then she equipped her side, a Five-Seven, and shot the maggot a few times. It wriggled in pain, letting out a high pitched wail. Suddenly, it seemed to split in half, and rows of teeth popped out.

“Regular maggots don’t look like that!” I yelled, then finally equipped my gun. Since it was my main, I could do more damage that Sinon and her flimsy pistol. The maggot monster tried to bite me, but I dodged and shot it right in its mouth. I guess that was the trick and I’d hit it’s guts, because it died soon after that. A few items popped up in my inventory; _Corpse Dweller’s Fang_ and _Corpse Dweller’s Guts_ , along with some basic metals.

“Fitting for an abandoned spaceship. Whatever people, or I guess NPCs, that lived here must’ve died out. Now all that’s left are the Corpse Dwellers, er, maggots,” Sinon explained to me. I must be stupid, because I didn’t get the connection at first. That made sense, though, and for a moment I wondered if she read a lot of sci-fi or something.

“Huh, maybe. But what was that back there? About me having an awful reaction time? I was pretty fast, I even killed the thing!” I replied, kind of irritated. Even though I was trying to get through to her, she had been a massive jerk the whole time. She needed a good call out.

“Well, you were nowhere _near_ as fast… as… Spiegel…” Sinon mumbled, then quickly shut her lips. She turned around and stomped away from me, trying to ignore what she’d just admitted. But this was my chance, and I wasn’t going to let it escape me.

“Did something happen between you and Spie-” I began before a bullet nicked me in the shoulder. My health decreased in an instant. Once I pried my eyes off of the left corner of my menu, I saw Sinon with her arm extended and the pistol in hand. She wasn’t even looking at me, but she’d shot me. She totally shot me.

“What the hell?! You know you can _actually_ kill me out here, right?” I shouted, gripping my shoulder. I wasn’t in pain, but I did it anyway. The dash line under my fingers still gleamed red. I could feel my face scrunch up.

“Mind your fucking business!” Sinon yelled back. Her voice sounded strained despite being in a video game. The sheer amount of anger shocked me. She was usually huffy, but this was a whole other level of rage. I guess I was getting pretty close to the root of the problem. I decided to throw a curveball, hoping she’d bite.

“Hey, I talk to him sometimes, too. I wanna know why he hasn’t been logging in lately,” I lied through my teeth. I’d heard of Spiegel, but I don’t think we’d talked once during his time playing the game. Unless you count a shoot out a conversation, but whatever. Sinon got visibly riled up by this comment.

“What? No you don’t!” she said, calling me out on my bluff. Her face started to turn back toward me, and I saw that painful expression again. Her lip was trembling, and for a moment I felt bad for making her so upset. So in my head, I apologized for what I was about to say.

“You don’t know _everything_ about him,” I grumbled like a little kid. Just then, I heard a loud clack, like metal hitting the ground. I looked down at the floor, fearing an enemy, when I saw Sinon’s side gun. Soon, she followed it, falling to her knees.

“I _know_ I don’t know everything! I knew fucking _nothing_ about him! That’s why… that’s why he’s not coming to _Gun Gale Online_ anymore…” she cried, burying her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook violently. I think my jaw went slack, I’m not entirely sure. I took a step forward and reached a hand out before suddenly freezing up. I had no idea how bad it was.

“I’m so fucking stupid. I should’ve realized, but I was so fucking self centered. It’s all my fault. I should’ve communicated better. Now I have to wait to tell him, and I don’t know for how long,” Sinon continued, digging her nails into her face now. Her voice was muffled, but I could hear her begin to cry. I used all my might to take another few steps forward.

“They won’t let me see him. They didn’t even answer my questions about him. I can’t take it. I just want all of this to be a dream and to see him at our usual table in the back of the bar in Glocken…” Sinon went on, tears streaming down her cheeks. Her voice became shaky, too. My stomach dropped; what the hell was she talking about? Were she and Spiegel safe? I hoped they hadn’t gotten into major trouble, like with a gang or something.

“I can’t stop thinking about it. The sound of his head knocking against my bed frame…,” Sinon’s hands dragged down her face, as if something was eating at her mind. Finally, I saw her eyes. They were puffy and the tears didn’t stop coming. Something about her words struck me as odd, though, and I got nauseous.

“Your… bed frame? Hold on, you know each other IRL? You’re on house-visiting terms?” I asked, a lump forming in my throat. If the situation were a bit different, I probably would’ve cracked a joke about the two of them getting frisky, but I’d get shot again. Spiegel hit his head? I was honestly starting to get scared. For the first time in my life, I understood what all those PSAs about internet friends meant. I ignored my gut, though, and went for the taboo topic of real life. Sinon couldn’t be dangerous, right?

“Huh? Yeah… we’re classmates in school. He dropped out, though. Ah fuck, even back then he was… damn it! That was the first sign! Those doctors told me all the signs, so I should’ve known. But I missed them all!” she answered before breaking down into pitiful sobbing. I couldn’t understand a word she was saying anymore, not about doctors or signs or whatever, so I let her continue to cry it out.

“Then the day after, for hours in that gritty questioning room, I only asked about him. It’s so strange. I came out of the whole ordeal with a few nasty bruises, one on my neck and one in my heart, but all I can think about is how it’s all my fault,” Sinon berated herself. Her voice got even higher in pitch than before, cracking every other word. Finally, once my head emptied of thoughts, I firmly walked over to her. I crouched my legs, getting close to the curled up girl, and put a hand on her back.

“But… he’s okay, right?” I mumbled in quiet voice. I sounded unsure of myself, and since we were pretty close, I figured Sinon would hear that. Maybe it wasn’t the best thing to say; I used my free hand to twiddle with my hat and scrunched my face into my shoulders. I hoped she wouldn’t shoot me for that. There was always the chance that, after he hit his head, Spiegel…

“Yeah… I guess… if you look at it that way, he’s better than he was before… if… if it wasn’t me, he might’ve actually…” Sinon began to mutter, interrupting my morbid thoughts. She still took shaky breaths between words, but her rapid sniffling settled down. Her dim eyes lightened up in the slightest. _Finally, I’m getting somewhere!_ I could hear a home stretch fanfare in my mind. But there was still a stretch left; how could I comfort Sinon through this trying time? I’m just a lame net gamer with no real life experience, and I barely knew the situation at hand.

I patted her back as I thought for a moment. Sinon has taught me so much, so I had to return the favor. But how could I channel my gratitude via advice? I thought back to the battle against Behemoth again. I think Sinon yelling at me was a wake-up call. I was a cowardly gamer who camped for hours because there was no risk. When shit hit the fan, I wanted out. But it was in that moment of desperation, of yelling and lecturing, that I realized stuff about myself. _I should change and be a better guy_ , I had thought back then. Suddenly, my eyes widened. _I got it!_

“Um… sometimes, bad things happen for a reason. Shit, that sounds mean. You see, self-improvement isn’t a journey with a straight path. There’s so many twists and turns that if you were to map it out, it’d look like a scribble. Sometimes you need a big, bad thing to push you forward a grand leap. So it’s not your fault in the slightest,” I explained to the best of my ability. Literature wasn’t my strongest subject when I was in school, so I doubt I did well. However, Sinon’s breathing settled. She raised her right hand and wiped away a few tears, trying to clean up her face. Her lips trembled, trying to speak, but I guess she still wasn’t up to it.

“I don’t know what happened between you and Spiegel on the other side, but I just hope you’re okay. Don’t blame yourself. I’d like to think you’re a friend, and so I got worried. Sorry if I pried, but uh, yeah,” I continued, apologizing for making her bawl her eyes out. I took my hand off of her and scratched my cheek with one finger.

“Thank you, Dyne. You’re not as bad as I thought,” Sinon finally responded, her voice sore. She kept rubbing her eyes, but managed to look at me while doing so. They still carried that heavy aura of despair, but shined just a little. I tilted my hat down to cover my face.

“Huh, so you _can_ be nice,” I joked as a cover. In truth, my throat hurt and I was probably making a strained face. Suddenly, I was the one close to crying. But I’m not so much of a changed man that I’d let anybody know.

“Don’t make me take back my words!” Sinon spat back, her voice still a bit stuffy. But from her tone, I could tell she felt better and was back to her normal self. I reached a hand under my hat, wiped my face, and put on a grin.

“Alrighty, ice cold sniper. Now let’s _actually_ loot this dungeon!” I exclaimed, pumping my fist. She returned the gesture, and we happily strolled through the abandoned spaceship with our trusty guns in hand. Mission cleared.

After a few hours, a couple of near death encounters, and a fuck ton of items and credits later, Sinon and I decided we’d gotten our fill from the new dungeon. I was getting tired of crawling through tiny corridors and getting scratched by loose wires, and I think she felt the same. One time, I’d actually fallen down some sort of pipe and gotten trapped. My HP slowly dripped away and I truly felt like I was suffocating, but luckily Sinon found me and pulled me away in time. Needless to say, we were done spelunking for the day.

“Oh, by the way, what happens in the abandoned spaceship _stays_ in the abandoned spaceship. If you tell anyone about my… episode, I’ll unfriend and then publicly execute you,” Sinon threatened me once we reached the exit. She stretched her arms out and cracked her knuckles, trying to intimidate me, but I knew what she was getting at. She’d opened up to me about something deeply personal, and she didn’t want me to betray her trust. From her tense posture, I could tell that trust was a touchy subject for her.

“Gotcha. I’m not an asshole, y’know. But if you ever need to blow off steam again, just send me a message and I’ll be down to obliterate monsters with you,” I replied, clearing my throat afterward to imply formality. Then I held my hand out.

“Put ‘er there,” I said, smirking. It felt nice to pretend to be a cowboy, though I don’t think Sinon caught on. She snorted, holding back a laugh.

“What the hell’s that supposed to be?” she asked harshly, making fun of me. My grin changed into a dropped jaw.

“Come on, you don’t know? It’s a handshake! Like in all those movies about the wild west!” I had to keep myself from rambling on. I thought even a college student would get the reference, but it seemed I was wrong. Sinon furrowed her eyebrows, trying to figure it out. Then she sighed, shrugged her shoulders, and walked over to me. Her hand slammed into mine, a nice smack ringing in the air as we clasped hands. She tugged mine down harshly before letting go.

“There you go, there’s your weird handshake. Anyway, I think I’ll take you up on your offer some time,” Sinon stated briskly. She then turned around and teleported away from the ship. For a split second, I could’ve sworn that I saw her smiling.

A few months later, in June, I found myself sitting in a bar in Glocken with Sinon. She’d sent me a message about going back to the abandoned spaceship, so I agreed. We wiped the floor with those Corpse Dwellers, and even took down a mini-boss, so we were celebrating with a drink. The pale liquid made my throat tingle as I downed it. I shook my head around to dissipate the sensation, and that’s when I noticed that Sinon had ordered two drinks.

“Wow, that many? What are you, an alcoholic IRL? I guess by now you’d be twenty, right? So at least it’s legal,” I joked, thinking for a second. College kids these days never cease to amaze me. Sinon frowned, unimpressed.

“No, I can’t even— ahem, it’s for Spiegel. That avatar got terminated today. So I figured… I’d pour one out for him. I have credits to spare from the fourth BoB anyway, so I’m good,” she explained, staring off into the distance. It looked like her mind was trying to trail over to another world, or maybe a distant memory.

“Oh, so it’s really been that long?” I asked, my voice soft and airy. It was a touchy subject, after all. Suddenly, it made sense as to why she decided to hang out with me. I stared at the glass on the table, the dark liquid slightly bobbing around. It probably didn’t have much time left before it shattered into a billion blue shards, but it was the sentiment that mattered.

“Yeah… anyway, you asked why I haven’t logged in for a hot minute? I was taking a trip to Kyoto, sorry,” Sinon replied, hastily changing the subject. Even though she had the courage to face whatever was going on, it didn’t mean she enjoyed talking about it. I tilted my head at her remark.

“You went to Kyoto? Why, for school? Family?” I asked, interested in small talk. For a second, I forgot that we’re not supposed to talk about IRL stuff in game. I picked at my mustache, worried she’d tell me off, but was surprisingly met with an answer.

“Yeah, a trip with some friends. I posted about it on my social media,” Sinon said, twirling her hair. I guess she was fine with small talk, too, as long as it meant avoiding the previous topic.

“Something which I don’t follow,” I reminded her, crossing my arms. I wondered why she’d drop a remark like that, since there was no way I’d ever see it. That’s when she said something even more shocking.

“Hm? You don’t? Well, my Instagram is sinon_hecate2 if you were curious. It’s private, but I’ll accept your follow request if you want,” Sinon told me, looking a bit peppy. She blinked at me, waiting for a reply. I almost did a spit take.

“H-huh? Are you sure? Isn’t that stuff, like, personal?” I sputtered, swinging my head to face her so fast that my hat almost fell off. I’m sure my eyes were wide and my jaw was dropped. She must’ve noticed my dramatic reaction, because she laughed.

“Sure, why not? We’re friends, after all,” Sinon teased me. I realized she was making fun of me for what I’d said to her in the abandoned spaceship some time ago. But in the same respect, she probably trusted me because of that. I’d seen a side of her that all of her _GGO_ fanboys hadn’t, and I’d kept my promise and never brought it up. A mutual respect grew between us.

“If it’s alright with you,” I replied, feeling proud. She nodded at me, and we continued our idle chatter about gear and new maps. We sat in the bar for a moment longer, until Spiegel’s drink disappeared into thin air. Then we both logged out, having gotten our fill of the post-apocalyptic gun world for the day.

My eyes flipped open. I was back in my room, back in my loungewear. The AmuSphere clung to my head nicely, though it clouded my vision from all the smudges that accumulated on it over the years. I pulled it off and set it on my night table, exchanging it for my phone. I opened up Instagram, and went to the search bar. I found the account almost immediately, and hit the “request follow” button. Sinon’s icon was of her avatar, of course. Her description was her in-game nickname, _Gun Gale Online’s_ Goddess of the Underworld. In a matter of minutes, the rest of the account opened up to me.

The first photo I saw was definitely what Sinon had told me about; it was a person in front of a tourist attraction. I got a good look at her face, trying to associate the girl in the picture with the sniper I knew. They had similar hairstyles, but the girl in the traditional outfit had black hair and glasses. She also looked kind of young. _Holy shit, is Sinon actually a high schooler? If she is, I’m_ so _unfriending Ginrou,_ the thought popped into my mind. I shook my head rapidly, hoping to take my mind off of it. Even though my head hurt a bit, I read the description. I noticed that the girl in the picture was holding a small wooden plaque.

_This ema brings good luck when it comes to academics, nice. This place has such a sacred atmosphere, and I think it’s the only place with this much historical feeling behind it._

What an interesting description. So Sinon really was a nerd, like I thought. Chuckling to myself, I double tapped the image.

_Dyne liked this post._

**Author's Note:**

> References!  
> “College student”— In volume 5, it’s shown that Dyne and his squadron think that Sinon is a college student because she accidentally mentioned having homework one time.  
> This ema brings good luck/sinon_hecate2/Dyne liked this post— In late 2019, SAO had a crossover with Kyoto Nippon Festival in which you collected little cards(?) of the characters as you went around Kyoto. The cards looked like Instagram posts, fit with usernames, descriptions, and people who liked the posts. Everything I mentioned is listed on Sinon’s card.  
> Abandoned spaceship— In the web novel character interviews, Sinon mentions there being one in GGO, and that she’d like to explore it.  
> “Put ‘er there”— Sinon says this to Asuna in volume 9 when they agreed to fight together in BoB 5. I thought it’d be funny if she picked it up from Dyne.  
> “Hit his head on my bed frame”— In volume 6, it’s stated that Shino doesn’t really remember the action of clocking Kyouji with the stereo, but she very clearly remembers the sound of his head hitting the pipe bed.


End file.
